The strong response from Australia’s gaming community to the R18+ issue may have backfired a bit, as the government is now delaying discussion of the issue in order to get feedback from more of the community.

GameSpot notes that Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O’Connor indicated that, “…further work needs to be done before a decision can be made.” When pressed, O’Connor told the publication that “ministers had agreed that a broader consultation of the public's views was needed following the dominant response from ‘interest groups.’”

While a spokesperson from O’Connor’s office indicated that “interest groups” referenced the 34 community, church, and other groups that lodged submissions in the public consultation, GameSpot wrote that, “given that submissions were dominated by pro-R18+ interest groups (EB Games and Grow Up Australia), the intended meaning seems clear.”

Perhaps the AU government doesn’t understand that gamers now permeate just about every corner of culture, a point made by Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (iGEA) President Ron Curry, who stated, “I’m not sure how the [Home Affairs] minister pigeon-holes them as an 'interest group', because gamers cover all facets of society.”

Curry, who also noted that a recent poll indicated that 68% of Australians are gamers, continued:

If consultations, by their nature, attract submissions from people who are passionate about an issue--and I assume passionate in both opposition and support--then why bother?

Comments

Maybe now the AU government will come to it's senses on this issue and let it rest. It has taken them a really extremely long time to know that 68% of Australian's are gamers. Hmmmm.....the government there is far behind and needs to catch up with times.

"It's better to be hated for who you are, then be loved for who you are not." - Montgomery Gentry

"It's better to be hated for who you are, then be loved for who you are not." - Montgomery Gentry

I would perhaps not listen to anything that the Minister of Home Affairs is saying at the moment. (HE is not an Attorney General anyway, so who cares of what he is saying)

From what I understand, is that the Attorney Generals are still making their mind up on the issue weighing up all options that they could do, perhaps trying to get more informed decisions or something like that.

Well done Australian gamers for doing their part, we have got nothing to be dissapointed it.

The only thing that we only have to be dissapointed in is that there are not many gamers in politics who can speak more to the Australian media and get more support from people who either don't know about the issue or either don't care about us...

Lets just make sure that the next Attorney Generals after the state and federal elections in other parts of Australia are more even minded and can made decisions early just so we don't have to wait as long, or else this would prove that politicians know nothing about computer games, therefore they are not suitable to make decisions.

I'd like to say that we need a change in the classification system, allow the classification board to make their own decisions on what they want to do and not have them bined by the government's decisions on whether to include an R18+ rating for computer games...

anyway, we as Aussie gamers have got nothing to be dissapointed about, we did our best and that is all we could do, and a 98% positive vote out of over 60,000 submissions to the government is perhaps the strongest indicator that we do need an R18+ rating for computer games, even if most of society does not care about us, we have proven that there are allot of people who do care and that is all we can do.

This is just a delay in the process. It's Federal Election year. My guess is that the Government doesn't want to rock the boat with the Christian/Lunatic Fringe.

One of the things you need to realise is that most of the popular media is traditionally heavily conservative (not unlike FOX) and Labour governments are always facing criticism from that front. If it doesn't make the news then they're nothing to report on and nothing for the media to blow out of all proportion.

With the amount of support behind change, the change will happen .... it will just happen AFTER the election.

So their plan is to get people who are not interested in the R18 debate to make commetns on it? Seriously? They had this request for comment open for months. You would think that those that were interested in voicing their opinion on the subject would have done so.What do they plan to do differently this time? How will they attract comments from those that do not care about the issue? E. Zachary Knight Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA http://www.theeca.com/chapters_oklahoma

I think many of the traditional power blocks were fairly quiet due to the 'of course it would be' attitude that took the status-quo as a given. They had no idea anyone would challenge it in any real amount.

I have to agree witn Neeneko. Had the government gotten a disproportional number of responses from "activist" groups against R18+, would they have delayed their response to solicit more responses from pro R18+ groups?

Generally governments are fine with one sided lobbying from specific interest groups, so that is not the issue. More likely they were getting concerned about lobbying from a non-established group for something that was a forgone conclusion from their traditional sources. So now they have to find a way to counter this new lobby without pissing off older ones, thus they are making double sure that the older ones have a disproportionally loud voice at the table.

So it is less of a delay of something already in motion (that would have gone forward without Pro-R18+ groups) and more of a 'oh shit, things are moving without an established power! quick! how can we make sure our friends stay powerful while giving the illusion of fairness?'

Infophile: @Matt: Apparently Dan Aykroyd actually is involved. We don't know how yet, though, but he's apparently going to be in the movie in some way.08/02/2015 - 4:17am

Mattsworkname: I still hold that not having the origonal cast invovled in any way hurts this movie, and unless the 4 actresses in the lead roles can some how measure up to the comic timing of the origonal cast, i just don't see it being a success08/02/2015 - 12:46am

Mattsworkname: Mecha: regardless of what you think of it, GB 2 was a finanical success and for it time did well with audiances ,even if it wasnt as popular as the first08/02/2015 - 12:45am

MechaTama31: I think they're better off trying to do something different, than trying to be exactly the same and having every little difference held up as a shortcoming. Uncanny valley.08/01/2015 - 11:57pm

MechaTama31: Having the original cast didn't do much for... that pink-slimed atrocity which we must never speak of.08/01/2015 - 11:56pm

Mattsworkname: Andrew: If the new ghostbusters bombs, I cant help but feel it'll be cause it removed the origonal cast and changed the formula to much08/01/2015 - 8:31pm

Andrew Eisen: Not the best look but that appears to be a PKE meter hanging from McCarthy's belt.08/01/2015 - 7:34pm

Mattsworkname: You know what game is a lot of fun? rocket league. It' s a soccer game thats actually fun to play cause your A Freaking CAR!08/01/2015 - 7:02pm

Mattsworkname: Nomad colossus did a little video about it, showing the world and what can be explored in it's current form. It's worth a look, and he uses text for commentary as not to break the immerison08/01/2015 - 5:49pm

Mattsworkname: I feel some more mobility would have made it more interesting and I feel that a larger more diverse landscape with better graphiscs would help, but as a concept, it interests me08/01/2015 - 5:48pm